Drug Abuse and Drug Rehab in Lakewood Ranch, Florida

Lakewood Ranch is a beautiful place to raise a family, retire or just enjoy life. This planned enclave near Sarasota, Florida consists of 31,000 acres of homes, community meeting centers, swimming pools and retirement facilities that would be the envy of almost anyone seeking aesthetics and recreation.

However, just like in any other location in the country, some people in this community become addicted to substances like painkillers, alcohol, stimulants or synthetic drugs.

Every community must have access to drug rehab services that work, that enable a person to get on a sober path and stay there. Lakewood Ranch, planned or not, needs the same service as any other Florida community.

Making the Right Choice for Drug Rehab

When a family member, spouse or other loved one is struggling, the family has to make a choice on what type of help to seek. When a company has an employee that is struggling, they need drug rehab support to get this valuable employee back on the job, helping the company thrive.

There are many choices for a person wishing to break with a past addiction. There are 13 drug rehab facilities within a half-hour’s drive of Lakewood Ranch that serve that community as well as nearby Sarasota and Bradenton.

Support Meetings: There are dozens of alcoholism support meetings within driving distance and one that meets midday in Lakewood Ranch. There are more than 80 support meetings for those people struggling with narcotics or other drugs. This means there is always someone ready to help, not far away.

Detox Services: These medically-supported services are not drug rehabs but simply start a person safely on their road to sobriety. Many people will need the support of medical staff as they withdraw from heavy alcohol or benzodiazepine use. A person with health issues may need medical supervision to withdraw from heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine or other drugs. This medical support can give a person a good start as they get on the road to better health.

Outpatient Drug Rehab: Someone who must work or care for children may find that outpatient drug rehab services work for them. In the area of Lakewood Ranch, there are 12 of these facilities within a short drive. When a person goes to an outpatient drug rehab program, they attend part-time while continuing to reside at home.

Inpatient Drug Rehab: Some people need the around-the-clock support available from inpatient drug rehab. They need supervision to ensure they don’t slip. They need to be removed from their home environments so drug dealers don’t know where to find their favorite customers. With a residential, inpatient drug rehab program, this degree of supervision and a rich schedule of counseling and life skills training may be found.

The right choice for an individual will vary based on the needs of the person and the facilities that are readily available. Every community must have access to recovery services that work, that enable a person to get on a sober path and stay there. Lakewood Ranch needs ample access to these services to enable members of this community to recover from addiction and return to honest, productive lives.

Legal and Illegal Substances in Lakewood Ranch

Even a prosperous, planned community will have drug problems. There is always someone willing to shelve their conscience so they can supply addictive substances to residents. There are always individuals who lose control of their indulgences to the point that they become addicted.

• In August 2022, a young Lakewood Ranch resident was arrested for possession of crack cocaine, oxycodone pills, a 9 mm gun and $4000 in cash. He had previously been arrested for the sale of cocaine near a school.¹

• Several years before, a high school teacher in Lakewood Ranch was arrested for possession of methamphetamine. Her possession of a sensitive weighing scale could have signaled her intention to traffick this drug as well as use it.²

• The next year, a drug dealer with more than 30 arrests on his record and a home in Lakewood Ranch was arrested for selling heroin and cocaine.³

• There are five liquor stores in Lakewood Ranch and several bars or taverns. There are also several pain management specialists which, at one time, especially in Florida, identified doctors who were willing to hand out drugs on demand.

• In May 2022, Dr. Steven Chun was convicted of accepting bribes and kickbacks in exchange for prescribing Subsys, a liquid form of the opioid painkiller fentanyl, out of his Lakewood Ranch office. Medicare paid millions of dollars for prescriptions written by his office.⁴

In short, if a person is addicted, there are places even in Lakewood Ranch to get supplies.

Drug Abuse Patterns in Manatee County, Florida

About 13% of Floridians are drug users, with the top drug used being marijuana, the same as in every other corner of the country. One in three people between the ages of 18 to 25 will use marijuana every year.⁵

By 2022, Manatee County officials announced that their opioid overdose deaths had climbed to the highest rate in five years. After state officials were able to see positive improvements after working hard to shut down overprescribing physicians, this was a severe setback. Fentanyl supplies flooding the state were blamed for increasing the number of losses in 2021 to 803 for the year.⁶

Alcohol plagues every city and town in America, but in Manatee County, there is the possibility that those who fall victim to alcoholism or drug abuse can avoid jail terms through the Manatee County Drug Court in nearby Bradenton. A drug court offers those who are arrested for a crime related to substance abuse a chance to rehabilitate themselves under the supervision of the court.

Choosing Drug Rehab Carefully for Success

Families in Lakewood Ranch and Manatee County would be wise to carefully scrutinize any drug rehab program they are considering. In many cases, talking to a few people who have completed the program or families who chose this drug rehab program for a loved one can be the step that brings about success.

The key factor in success is often not delaying once the real source of the person’s problem has been identified. There are too many drugs capable of causing a person’s death to delay even a week, once the realization has occurred that someone needs drug rehab. The sooner a person can walk in the front door of an effective drug rehab facility, the sooner they can achieve lasting sobriety.

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